Why some people still think the Moon landings were FAKED 50 years later – and the man who started the ‘hoax’ theory

NEXT week will be the 50th anniversary of the first man on the Moon, but there are still those who doubt the official story and plenty of conspiracy theories suggesting it never happened.

Nasa won the space race to the Moon on July 20, 1969 and 650million people watched televised footage of astronauts Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin walking on its surface – but it only took one man to convince people that it was all a hoax.

Neil Armstrong, Michael Collins and Buzz Aldrin went on the first Moon landing mission

www.billkaysing.com

Bill Kaysing will forever be known as the man who started the moon-hoax conspiracy[/caption]

An american man called Bill Kaysing is known as the person who started the moon-hoax conspiracy.

He had actually contributed to the US space programme in a small way by working for a company that helped to design the Saturn V rocket engines.

In 1976 he published a pamphlet called We Never Went to the Moon: America’s Thirty Billion Dollar Swindle, which included lots of conspiracy theories.

His pamphlet started conspiracies that are still very much alive today.

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No crater was left behind by the lander because it landed on rock[/caption]

Bill Kaysing died in 2005 at the age of 82 but his moon-hoax legacy lives on and the internet has helped it spread further.

Kaysing argued for his whole life that Nasa actually staged the moon landing in a studio and raised issues such as there being no stars in the photos, the waving flag, shadows at different angles and no crater created by the Eagle lander as evidence for his conspiracy.

These theories have been debunked by many experts but that doesn’t stop people believing them.

Conspiracy theorists argue that the Moon landing was staged on a film set because objects have shadows at different angles, which could suggest multiple lights[/caption]

Apollo 11 mission – the key facts

Here's what you need to know…

Apollo 11 is the name for the mission that landed the first two people on the Moon

The spaceflight was manned by Command Neil Armstrong and lunar module pilot Buzz Aldrin, both Americans

They landed the Apollo Lunar Module Eagle on July 20, 1969 and 8.17pm UTC

Armstrong became the first person to set food on the lunar surface six hours later

He was then joined by Aldrin a further 19 minutes later

The pair spent roughly two hours and 15 minutes together outside the spacecraft, collecting lunar material to bring back to Earth

And in total, they spent 21.5 hours on the lunar surface before rejoining the command module Columbia in lunar orbit

Armstrong’s first step onto the lunar surface was broadcast live on TV to the world

He famously described the moment as “one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind”

The moon-hoax theory is also encouraged in popular culture like the James Bond film Diamonds Are Forever in which Sean Connery runs onto a Nasa film set that is set up like the Moon landing.

Popular conspiracy YouTube videos have also furthered the speculations.

YouTuber Shane Dawson uploaded a Moon landing conspiracy video that now has 7million views and a controversial 2001 Fox TV special called “Conspiracy Theory: Did We Land on the Moon?” has over half a million views on YouTube.

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This James Bond film poked fun at the idea of the Moon landing being staged[/caption]

In 2002, one of the conspiracy theorists that appeared in that TV special harassed Buzz Aldrin on the street about the Moon landing and asked him to swear about it on a Bible and then Aldrin punched him in the face.

Nasa intends to return to the Moon as early as 2024 so all these conspiracies may finally be laid to rest.

Scientific explanations for some of the Moon landing myths

Some people try to dispute the Moon landing with these theories…

No stars are visible in the pictures: Camera experts explain this by pointing out that the astronauts were using cameras with high shutter speeds, which means their camera shutters were open for fractions of a second and not long enough to capture the faint light of far away stars, it was also lunar morning so the Sun could have been shining too brightly for stars to be visible

Lack of a blast crater when the spacecraft landed: The landing module of the spaceshuttle touched down on solid rock covered in lunar dust

Issues with the way shadows fall, suggesting there was several light sources like lights in a studio: Each object only casts one shadow suggesting there is only one light source and a low sun and uneven surface can distort the angles of shadows

American flag appears to wave when there is no wind on the Moon: The flag does not move unless directlt touched and takes a long time to settle due to there being no atmosphere

Someone else would have had to have been on the Moon to film the first step: The first step was filmed by a camera mounted on the Eagle lander and pictures people relate to Neil Armstrong’s first step on the Moon are actually of Buzz Aldrin and were taken by Armstrong